Jul 17, 2014

In 2011, Sheila Kihne felt so strongly about Congressman Erik Paulsen's vote for the Congressional compromise that prevented the United State government from defaulting that she resigned from the CD3 Republicans executive board.

Kihne is now hallenging Assistant Minority Leader Jenifer Loon (R-Eden Prairie) is a bitter primary in House District 48B. Neither candidate was endorsed at the local convention; Kihne's bid has been supported by wink-wink issue ads and mailings by the Minnesota Family Council, which is punishing Loon for voting for marriage equality in 2013.

Bluestem has obtained a copy of the email announcing her resignation from a source who was not a board member. With email addresses redacted, here's the email:

I'm sitting with my husband looking at the Roll Call vote on today's debt ceiling bill..... ,.It's frustrating and highly disappointing to see my Congressman's name on the list with Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman Schultz for the "compromise". We had the Democrats by the tail and we let a golden opportunity slip away. We bend to pressure while they shove Obamacare right down our throats w/o 1 Republican vote on Christmas Eve.

I made a mistake in running for the 3rd CD again in April and while I've enjoyed meeting and getting to know everybody, my heart is not in the 3rd District right now and my time is very limited with family obligations.

I'm resigning effective immediately.

I'll be at the State Fair booth for a shift-- and will forward any other action items that come my way to Rick and Margaret.

Representative Erik Paulsen (MN-03) issued the following statement after voting for the Budget Control Act which would avoid default, begin to address our nation’s out-of-control spending, and includes no taxes on job creators.

“With great reluctance, I voted in favor of this bill only because it was better than the alternative. Now that job-crushing tax hikes are off the table, hard working Minnesota families and small businesses can start living with more certainty,” said Paulsen. “However, the simple truth is that relying on another special committee and not mandating a balanced budget clearly shows that Washington has a long way to go in ending its spending addiction.”

“While we may have succeeded in forcing Washington to change the conversation on the size of government, this is only a small step towards doing what is needed to adequately address our spending-driven debt crisis and end Washington-style accounting gimmicks,” Paulsen continued. “I promise to continue working with my colleagues to see that Congress listens to the people and passes a Balanced Budget Amendment as well as permanent spending controls so that we can begin to pay down our national debt.”

After months of partisan impasse, the House on Monday approved a budget agreement intended to head off a potential government default, pushing Congress a big step closer to the conclusion of a bitter fight that has left both parties bruised and exhausted.

Despite the tension and uncertainty that has surrounded efforts to raise the debt ceiling, the vote of 269 to 161 was relatively strong in support of the plan, which would cut more than $2.1 trillion in government spending over 10 years while extending the borrowing authority of the Treasury Department. It would also create a powerful new joint Congressional committee to recommend broad changes in spending — and possibly in tax policy — to reduce the deficit.

On Thursday morning a dozen conservative activists, including GOP state Rep. Cindy Pugh, gathered in U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen’s Eden Prairie office seeking an audience with the congressman. The group was upset over recent comments by Paulsen suggesting that he would be willing to break with the GOP House leadership in order to end the federal government shutdown. . . .

GOP activist Sheila Kihne, who helped organize the visit to Paulsen’s office, expressed frustration at his accessibility. “He hasn’t had town halls. We haven’t had a chance to let him know what we think face to face, and it’s frustrating,” Kihne said. “I just want to talk to my congressman.” . . .

Most of the conservative activists gathered at Paulsen’s office on Thursday morning drifted away before they got a chance to speak with the congressman. But Kihne and a couple of others persisted and were able to communicate their concerns on a phone call. Specifically, Kihne said she expressed apprehension that Paulsen might join with House Democrats to end the shutdown and urged him to stand strong against Obamacare.

“He was very cordial, as he always is,” she said afterwards. “He heard us. He understood our concerns.”

But Kihne’s uncertain whether it will have any effect on how Paulsen acts moving forward. “This whole thing is a mess,” she said. “We’ll just have to see how it plays out.” . . .

Demko noted that PAulse faced a tricky political situation in negotiating the channel between extremists like Pugh and Kihne and the swing district he serves:

The showdown at Paulsen’s office underscores the politically tricky situation in which he finds himself. Paulsen represents a swing district — the Cook Partisan Voting Index gives Republicans a 2-point generic advantage there — that President Barack Obama carried in both the 2008 and 2012 elections.

Despite the competitiveness of Paulsen’s district, he has won in recent election cycles by overwhelming margins. He carried the district by more than 20 percentage points in 2010 and by 16 percentage points in 2012. No DFL challenger has so far emerged to take on Paulsen in the next election cycle.

But Republicans appear poised to take the bulk of the blame for the deeply unpopular government shutdown. A CBS News poll released on Thursday found that 44 percent of respondents blamed Republicans in Congress for the shutdown, compared with 35 percent who blamed Obama. If the gridlock continues for a significant amount of time, it could begin to erode Paulsen’s strong political standing.

We'll see just how big Kihne's extremist slice of the conservative pie is in Eden Prairie. After watching Minnesota live through a state government shutdown in 2011, we'll see on August 12, 2014 just who in the local Republican base is motivated to vote for or against Shutdown Sheila.

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